On Hannity & Colmes, DeLay falsely claimed House ethics committee never called for him to stop House violating rules

Summary: Tom DeLay falsely claimed that Alan Colmes told a "lie" when Colmes noted that the House ethics committee, in the course of admonishing DeLay for objectionable fundraising and improper use of a federal agency, called on DeLay to "temper your future actions to ensure you were in compliance with House ethics rules." In fact, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct did indeed ask DeLay to "temper [his] future actions" to assure "full compliance ... with the applicable House rules and standards of conduct."

On the November 8 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) falsely claimed that co-host Alan Colmes told a "lie" when Colmes noted that the House ethics committee, in the course of admonishing DeLay for objectionable fundraising and improper use of a federal agency, called on DeLay to "temper your future actions to ensure you were in compliance with House ethics rules." In fact, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct did indeed write to DeLay: "In view of the number of instances to date in which the committee has found it necessary to comment on conduct in which you have engaged, it is clearly necessary for you to temper your future actions to assure that you are in full compliance at all times with the applicable House rules and standards of conduct."

DeLay was discussing the November 7 midterm elections, which saw Democrats gain control of both chambers of Congress. Colmes asked DeLay, "Do you bear any responsibility for people having that perception of what went wrong with Republicans?" to which DeLay responded, "Not at all."

DeLay was indicted on September 28, 2005, on charges of money-laundering and conspiracy to violate Texas campaign finance law and resigned from Congress in June. Republicans were unable to put a replacement candidate on the ballot in the district DeLay represented because courts had ruled that the party could not do so after DeLay had won the primary. On November 7, Democrat Nick Lampson defeated Republican write-in candidate Shelley Sekula-Gibbs to fill DeLay's open seat.

Since his resignation, DeLay has been a frequent political commentator on Fox News, appearing on Hannity & Colmes five times (July 10, August 2, September 22, October 31, and November 8) and Your World with Neil Cavuto three times (July 12, July 24, and August 10).

From the November 8 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes:

COLMES: One of the big issues in this campaign, as the exit polls show, was corruption. Do you feel you bear any responsibility for people having that perception of what went wrong with Republicans?

DeLAY: Not at all. Name one thing, Alan Colmes, that I have been convicted of.

COLMES: No, you've not been convicted, but you were cited by the House ethics committee over the course of eight years about five times.

DeLAY: No. No. No. No.

COLMES: The ethics committee itself called on you to temper your future actions to ensure you were in compliance with House ethics rules.

DeLAY: Alan, that is lie, and you know it.

COLMES: The ethics committee did not say that?

DeLAY: No, the ethics committee warned me. I had no sanction brought against me for violating the House rules. All the ethics charges that I've been under for the last 10 years have been dismissed. And I don't agree with the warnings that they sent me. They were abso -- they were wrong. So I have been found guilty of nothing, so I'm not part of this thing. It did have an effect on 10 races. And you think about this, Alan; you better think about it very strongly. Ten races lost because of moral; 18 races barely won, Democrats barely won. 10 and 18 is 28 seats. How many seats did they gain? Twenty-nine. They're in real trouble in '08.

—R.M.